Discussion could restructure homeless services

A patron leaves the Mental Health America day shelter, 913 Columbia Street in Lafayette. The MHA board, faced with widespread concern from homeless service providers and community support, has pulled back from its intent to close the shelter, for now. The shelter will remain open until June 30, 2015.
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John Terhune/Journal & Courier
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In 2012, a community discussion led by a national nonprofit group resulted in the Solutions Beyond Shelter report — a 44-page document meant to guide efforts to end homelessness locally.

But within the past two years, despite several successes, that plan lost steam. Now, United Way and Lafayette city officials, with tens of thousands of dollars in recently awarded grant funding, are hoping to instill new vigor in the conversation about how best to serve the local homeless population.

“When we began this plan, we said we’ve got all these service providers out there and we’re going to try to figure out some way they all work together using the systems in place,” said Laura Carson, finance and community impact director with United Way of Greater Lafayette. “After two years, we don’t really feel like that has moved any closer to true collaboration and coordination.”

MHA’s board later stepped back, vowing to keep the shelter open until summer 2015. But the scare — a sign of continued funding struggles among local agencies — jarred the social service scene enough to add new urgency to the effort.

Taylor initially said the agency had received $65,000 in additional funds. The actual amount, Taylor now says, is $80,000, along with an additional $150,526 to be used for unrelated rapid re-housing programs.

“While our longer term planning started in 2012 in the public Charrette process, the course correction we are discussing now emerged as an active conversation in January of this year,” Taylor said. “While we have moved fairly quickly up to this point, we recognize that we have about a year to have a much firmer alternative in place that what exists today.”

A copy of the proposal that landed United Way the additional funding provides more detail about what could be in store as theconversation moves forward.

The funding includes:

• $50,000 to explore and design a homeless service model, including travel to witness other community models, and afford “legal consultation to create organization changes necessary,” including the possible merger of existing programs.

• $30,000 to build the case to the community to adopt the proposed model.

Solutions Beyond Shelter thus far has not been without successes. Among those victories: A new grant to support 75 veteran households, a coalition of faith-based volunteers to support those exiting jail, and the strengthening of relationships between service providers and local law enforcement.

But the main goal of establishing a “no wrong door” approach, in which the homeless can approach any agency to receive the same support services, failed to materialize.

“The stresses and limitations on these agencies have created challenges to carrying out this vision,” Taylor said.

Now, according to the proposal, the goal is to establish a more coordinated intake system for the homeless by combining permanent supportive housing units with a 24-hour homeless shelter that can be staffed around the clock.

Establishing a “single-point entry system” by “creating a single resource for people asking for assistance throughout the community (i.e. churches, homes, social service agencies, etc.) will allow for greater faithfulness to case management recommendations than our current patchwork approach,” the proposal reads.

Carson made the first overture to service providers May 15 during the monthly meeting of the Homeless Prevention and Intervention Network, a coalition of service providers and community and government leaders.

Taylor said the next step is identifying other communities and arranging travel to see how they serve the homeless. Time is of the essence, Taylor said.

“I don’t think we have time for a series of meetings,” Taylor said. “Scheduling that is going to have to happen very quickly. We’ve got to get started on sort of defining what model it is we want to pursue and to get from where we are to what that looks like.”

Service providers, faced with meeting growing demand with dwindling funding, are eager to see the process unfold.

“I think it’s a project that has great potential,” said Jennifer Flora, MHA executive director. “And once we get into this next phase, we’ll see a lot more progress. ”